Steam distributor for steam iron



Aug. L12, 1958 M. c. PAvLlc STEAM DISTRIBUTOR FOR STEAM' IRON Filed March 20, 1956 United States Patent YC) STEAM DISTRIBUTR FR STEAM IRON Mary C. Pavlic, North Canton, Ohio, assignor to rI`he Hoover Company, North Canton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 20, 1956, Serial No. 572,705

8 Claims. (Cl. 38--77) The present invention relates to steam irons and more particularly to a novel steam distributor for a steam iron which acts to evenly distribute the steam over the entire lower surface of the sole plate.

The steam distributor of the present invention is formed of powdered and sintered metal which is porous and through which the steam is distributed over the entire area of the sole plate surface.

According to the present invention steam is led from the flash boiler of the steam iron through steam passages and into contact with the steam distributor at an area slightly forwardly of the center of the sole plate whereby the steam will penetrate through the pores of the powdered sintered steam distributor in all directions, that is, downwardly through the distributor, sidewardly, forwardly and rearwardly from the central area where the steam comes into contact with the distributor.

According to one modification of the present invention the steam distributor also forms the ironing surface of the sole plate itself.

According to a second modification of the present invention the steam distributor is positioned between the sole plate proper and a stainless steel plate which forms the ironing surface, the stainless steel plate being pro- 'vided with a plurality of steam emission openings extending therethrough and distributed over substantially its entire area.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which,

Fig. 1 is a side view of the steam iron of the invention partly broken away to show the details of construction,

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the sole plate of a modified form of the present invention, and

Fig. 3 is a plan View of the top of a sole plate made according to the present invention and applicable to both modifications.

The steam iron to-which the present invention is applied, as shown in Fig. 1, is of known construction. lt comprises a sole plate 10, a water reservoir 11, a cover shell 12, a handle 13 and a temperature control dial 14.

The upper surface of the sole plate is provided with a ash boiler 15 covered by a cover plate 16 which includes a stainless steel disc 17 staked thereto which cooperates with a valve 18 to form a pressure joint between them.

The reservoir 11 and cover shell 12 are suitably secured to the handle 13 such as by screws at the rear end and by a bracket 19 at the front end. A fill tube 20 is secured to the front end of the reservoir 11 and extends upwardly into the hollow front leg of handle 13, and is provided With a fill opening 21.

A valve actuator 22 is mounted on top of the fill tube and actuates a valve stern 23 to open and close the valve 18, the latter being shown in open position in fig. 1.

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The reservoir 11, cover shell 12 and handle 13 are secured to the sole plate by single bolt 24 as shown. At the rear the reservoir 11 rests on a suitable support not shown and the bolt 24 thus applies pressure to the mating surfaces between disc 17 and valve 18, a spring 25 being provided to take up for manufacturing tolerances and to apply pressure between the mating surfaces of the valve 18 and disc 17.

The control dial 14 controls the temperature setting of a thermostatic switch 26 mounted on a land 27 extending upwardly from the sole plate 10. The switch controls the flow of electric current to a heating element 28 embedded in the sole plate 10 in accordance with the ternperature of the sole plate.

The construction so far described is old in the art and the present invention is applied thereto, although the present invention would be applicable to any iron of the flash boiler type.

According to the present invention a steam distributor 30 is secured to the bottom face of the sole plate 10 to cover substantially its entire under surface. The sole plate 1t) is formed with a comparatively large opening 31 so that the upper surface of the steam distributor 31B is exposed over a substantial area as shown at 32 of Fig. 3. The opening 31 is connected to the flash boiler 15 by steam passages 33 and 34 which extend backwardly along the legs of the heating element 28v and then reversely forward along the land Z7 to the opening 31. The opening 31 and passages 33 and 34 are closed by the cover plate 16 to prevent the escape of steam upwardly into the body of the iron, the joint between the plate 16 and the top of the sole plate 10 being suitably sealed for that purpose.

In the modification shown in Fig. 1 the bottom of the sole plate 10 is clad with a thin sheet of stainless steel 35 having a plurality of steam emission openings 36 dis* tributed about over substantially its entire area.

In, the modification of Fig. 2 the powdered sintered steam distributor 40 also forms the bottom face of the sole plate 1f) and it is unnecessary to provide additional steam emission openings.

The steam distributor 36 of Fig. 1 or #ttl of Fig. 2 may be made of any kind of powdered sintered metal such as copper, aluminum, stainless steel, etc. so long as it is sufficiently porous to pass steam therethrough.

In the modification of Fig. l steam distributor 30 is preferably made of a good heat conducting metal such as copper or aluminum and which is bondable to the stainless steel plate 3S and to the aluminum sole plate 10.

In the modification of Fig. 2 the steam distributor is preferably made of powdered sintered stainless steel and its bottom face is polished so as to a comparatively hard and smooth ironing surface.

The methods of bonding the sintered steam distributor to the other parts of the iron are known in the art and have therefor not been described.

It is known that the porosity of sintered powdered metals may vary widely depending upon the process by which they are made. Thus the proper porosity of the steam distributor may be selected toprovide optimum performance of the completed iron according to the invention.

Operation When the iron is hot and the valve 18 is open water will drop into the flash boiler 15 and be converted into steam. Steam will flow through passages 33 and 34 into the opening 31 above the area 32. The steam will then penetrate through the pores of the steam distributor in all directions from the area 32. `While more steam will be emitted immediately beneath the area 32 than elsewhere, the Process of ironing will distribute it over the surface of the material being ironed. Steam of course will also be emitted from other areas of the sole plate.

From the foregoing it can be seen that the present invention provides a simple and ellicient means of distributing steam over the entire ironing surface of the steam iron without the necessity of providing distributing grooves in the face of the sole plate as in the usual constructions.

While I have shown and described but two embodiments of my invention it is to be understood that those embodiments are to be taken as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense. I do not wish to be limited to the specific structure shown and described but wish to include all equivalent variations thereof except as limited by the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a steam iron; a sole plate; a ash boiler formed in the upper face of said sole plate; an opening formed through said sole plate; steam passages formed in said sole plate and forming communicating passages between said ash boiler and said opening; a cover plate secured to said sole plate and overlying said flash boiler', opening and steam passages, and a rigid porous steam distributor of powdered sintered metal closing the lower end of said opening and forming a permanent integral part of said sole plate.

2. In a steam iron according to claim 1 in which said steam distributor extends over substantially the entire bottom face of said sole plate.

3. In a steam iron according to claim 2 including a thin stainless steel plate secured to said sole plate beneath said distributor and forming the ironing surface of said sole plate, and steam emission openings in said stainless steel plate and distributed over substantially its entire area.

4. In a steam iron according to claim 3 in which said steam distributor is made of powdered sintered aluminum.

5. In a steam iron according to claim 3 in which said steam distributor is made of powdered sintered copper.

6. In a steam iron according to claim 2 in which said steam distributor also forms the ironing surface of said sole plate.

7. In a steam iron according to claim 6 in which said steam distributor is made of powdered sintered stainless steel.

8. In a steam iron according to claim 7 in which the lower surface of said powered stainless steel is polished.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,299,202 Bass Oct. 20, 1942 2,317,706 Woodman Apr. 27, 1943 2,365,332 Cissell Dec. 19, 1944 2,701,424 Schreyer Feb. 8, 1955 

